Patrick C. Shaltry, I v. Brent Benzing, et al.

What the court wrote

Verbatim from the court's document (public domain). Ellipses mark omitted text; nothing is paraphrased.

final conviction and is presumed innocent while his appeal of right remains pending.” (E.g., ECF No. 31, PageID.620 (emphasis in original)). Because his appeal of right is still ongoing, Plaintiff contends that, as a matter of law, he has not been “convicted.” (Id.). In support, Plaintiff appears to quote several cases that, upon review, appear to be AI hallucinations. 2 (See ECF No. 29, PageID.605–06). For example, Plaintiff cites People v. Swafford, 762 N.W.2d 902, 904–05 (Mich. 2009), and attributes this quote to the case: “A conviction is not final until the completion of the direct appeal.” Although this case is real, the asserted quote is found nowhere within the case. The closest the cited case comes to Plaintiff’s proposition actually cuts the other way— that the defendant was convicted, notwithstanding that the conviction may later be overturned on appeal. See Id. at 905 n.5 (“Accordingly, the trial court did not have proper jurisdiction to bring defendant to trial or convict defendant.”). Thus, although AI “hallucinations” are instances where AI programs make stuff up. See Hunt v. Morissette, No. 24-cv-12947, 2025 WL 1660358, at *1 (E.D. Mich. June 11, 2025).